I hate to be the first to post here, because I found this article very informative, but just one minor observation: the Grand Canyon in the United States is not the longest or deepest canyon (or gorge) in the world, it is the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, in Tibet.

Really doesn't make a difference for anyone attempting to walk the canyon, but just maybe it will make walking it a bit easier knowing it is not the biggest!

Colca Canyon in Peru is also larger, grander physically & in appearance.

At some point we have to get over some of the false marketing propping up our own backcountry. The world is much bigger than that. Being the biggest/grandest/baddest is totally unneccessary for an obvious national treasure.

The R2R2R sounds truly insane. I've read blogs of elite runners doing it within a day's window and the suffering it entails. Imagine what the rangers would think if you announced your plans on attempting it :)

Props to Skurka, I'll be curious to hear how the Canyon experience once more will feel at the end of his current epic hike.

I've found it took me about 3 days to really get a sense of time and scale in the canyon and let it all settle in a meaningful way.

The trip is worth doing at a walk, too! I did a North Rim to South Rim backpack last June over 4 days. One advantage of going during such a hot time of year was the ability to travel with minimal gear. No sleeping bag, and I could have skipped the tent body except I wanted to keep the scorpions off me at night. Going as light as I did made it possible to thoroughly enjoy the trip where many of my group suffered blown knees, blisters, and black toe because they carried too much stuff. I got started with lightweight backpacking after Andy spoke to my hiking club at Honda during his C2C tour ( I was the one on crutches). So thank you , Andy, for getting me started on BPL, and making this "life list" trip possible!

Since the subject of Colca Canyon just came up. I just got back from a trip there and want to post this photo. Colca is not the deepest canyon in Peru that honor falls to the nearby Cotahuasi Canyon, which I unfortunately didn't get to visit on this trip.

I complete Roger's MYOG poncho specifically for this trip, even we were only trekking for a couple of days. It got good use across Peru as we were often jumping off buses in the pouring rain and hoofing it several blocks up to the hotel. I am looking forward to giving it a thorough testing this spring.

BPL's timing in publishing this article is impeccable: I'm sitting at a computer on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and am planning to go RRR again tomorrow, which might be tough since this morning I finished my 800-mile trek from Arches and my legs will not be fresh.

Wish BPL had published those water charts though -- that's critical info if you are running. BPL - Can those get posted? Let me know if you need me to resend them.

Re comments about superlatives used to describe the GC, you will notice that I did not say the "biggest" Big Ditch in the world -- I just said the "grandest," which I understand that it is despite not having been to the others that are even bigger/deeper/wider, including the Snake River Canyon here in the US.

We ran from Bright Angel because we could run straight from the hotel without hassle (and more importantly return up the Bright Angel and be equally close to our room.)

It snowed about 6 inches on the South Rim the night before our run, so we got first tracks down the trail. Actually a coyote got first tracks, ours were merely the first human tracks. Going up the North Kaibab entailed post-holing in about a foot of snow.

We used Kahtoola microspikes to enable full running on the way down, but never used them after that.

The multiple water sources (natural and man-enhanced) make this whole thing possible with very little water on the back. We never carried more than two liters.

We didn't see anyone else except at Phantom Ranch and on the last part of Bright Angel on the way back. I guess that's the advantage to doing this on a snowy day.